Diamondback (Watcher Datafile, Civil War)
Civil War PG: CW141 DIAMONDBACK Rachel Leighton secret Rachel Leighton was born in Austin, Texas. However, she spent her formative years in the Lower East Side of New York City. Rachel had a brother, Danny, later known as the costumed criminal Cutthroat. It was Danny and another of her brothers, Ricky, who originally fell in with a gang lead by a man known as "Bing". Yearning to be included, Rachel approached Bing alone. Upon claiming she would do anything to join the gang, Rachel was beaten up and apparently raped by Bing, who years later became the costumed mercenary Crossbones. Rachel herself became a mercenary, Diamondback. One of the members of the original Serpent Society, Diamondback was a seductively sly woman with expertise in hand-to-hand combat, gymnastics, and thrown weaponry, having been trained by Anaconda at Taskmaster's academy. Her gimmick was that she threw acid-laced, explosive, or poison-tipped diamonds at her enemies. After her first confrontation with Captain America while on assignment to find and kill MODOK, she was instantly smitten with him. Diamondback was later assigned to take Captain America into custody from the villain the Porcupine. In reality, the hand-over was a set-up so that Captain America could capture the Serpent Society. Realizing they'd been set up, Diamondback accidentally injured Porcupine fatally. The serpents escaped, and the Porcupine died. Diamondback later alerted Captain America to the Bloodstone Hunt and aided him in combat multiple times. She also encountered Crossbones for the first time, and was captured and imprisoned by him in a cathouse in Madripoor. Rachel escaped, however. Diamondback later accompanied Captain America to the Red Skull's Skull-House. Rachel and Cap eventually went on their first date, aided by Rachel's friends in the Serpent Society, Asp, Black Mamba, and Anaconda, who made sure the date wasn't interrupted by a range of minor villains. Diamondback was eventually put on trial by the Serpent Society for her consorting with the enemy, found guilty for her actions, and almost executed. She escaped with Captain America and Paladin's help, and later hired Paladin to help get revenge on the Serpent Society. Despite the successful outcome, the crisis had the unfortunate effect of underscoring fundamental differences in Diamondback's and Captain America's personalities and values. This was exacerbated by the presence of Paladin, who made sardonic comments about the unlikely nature of the couple at every opportunity. Though Cap and Diamondback still cared deeply for each other, their relationship slowly began to deteriorate as both realized that complications between them were difficult, if not impossible to work out. Along with her best friends, the Black Mamba and the Asp, she formed the mercenary group BAD Girls Inc. Though Diamondback's romantic relationship with Captain America was mostly over, they remained friends and her admiration for him remained unchanged. During the Civil War, Diamondback had the B.A.D. Girls join Cap's cause against the Super-Human Registration Act. Fighting on the losing side of the massive conflict eventually led to the three of them being defeated and apprehended by the pro-registration heroines Ms. Marvel, Wasp, and Black Widow. After the war, Diamondback and the other B.A.D. Girls were freed on the condition that they work for the government. Diamondback became a staff member of the Initiative, and stayed on even when Norman Osborn took over, though she secretly became a double agent who also worked for the Avengers Resistance. During this time she met the mercenary known as Constrictor, who saved her life when she was nearly hit by a crashing plane. There was a strong mutual attraction between the two and they began a romantic relationship. Constrictor found out about Diamondback's secret position in the Resistance and decided not to tell, though he was extremely worried about what might happen to both of them if the secret was uncovered. Following a brief stint working with S.H.I.E.L.D. as a special agent and partner of Dum-Dum Dugan, and disbandment of B.A.D. Girls Inc., Diamondack decided to retire, and leave a peaceful life with her fiancé Constrictor, who had also retired. Their happy life was cut short when Frank died from a terminal illness. After struggling to even pay the rent, Rachel became a pole dancer. One night she was approached by Viper, who convince her to return to a life of crime and join the new rebranded version of Rachel's old team, now called the Serpent Solutions. Unaware of her allegiance, the new Captain America, Sam Wilson went to Rachel for any intel on the Serpent Solutions. During a fight that sparked when members of the Serpent Solutions tried to take Captain America by surprise, Rachel revealed her true allegiance and betrayed Cap, stabbing him with a poisoned dagger that knocked him out. When Captain America was chained and brought to Viper, Rachel opposed the idea of killing him, to no avail. When Captain America's young ally Joaquín Torres arrived to save him, Serpent Solutions attempted to murder him, with Torres being saved only by his healing factor. Rachel had a change of heart and switched sides, helping Cap and his allies defeat Serpent Solutions. After the arrest of her former team, Diamondback disappeared and left the city. Diamondback wields an undisclosed number of 4-inch long elongated diamond-shaped throwing spikes. She refers to these weapons as "diamonds," even though they are not made of actual diamond (which would be far too expensive for use). Stored in her boots, gloves, earrings and elsewhere on her costume, these diamonds are needle-sharp and sometimes filled with various substances. Known diamonds in her arsenal have contained a lethal fast-acting snake venom-derived poison, an impact-detonated explosive with the concussive force of 10 pounds of TNT, a highly corrosive concentrated hydrochloric acid, tear gas, and a fast-acting sleep-inducing narcotic. At least one set of these diamonds were designed by the Tinkerer. Affiliations Solo D4, Buddy D8, Team D6 Distinctions Bad Girl Attitude, Romantic at Heart, Skilled Mercenary Power Sets BLOOD OF THE SUPER SOLDIER Enhanced Reflexes D8, Enhanced Stamina D8, Enhanced Strength D8 SFX: Immunity. Spend a doom die to ignore stress, trauma, or complications from disease, fatigue or poison. SFX: Second Wind. Before making an action including a Blood of the Super Soldier power, spend a doom die the same size or larger than current physical stress to recover it and step up the Blood of the Super Soldier power for this action. Limit: Long-Term Effects. Create or step up a Mania mental complication to step up the lowest die in the doom pool or add a D6 doom die. Recover the Mania complication by therapeutic recovery rolls. GIRLS BEST FRIENDS Enhanced Durability D8, Weapon D8 SFX: Acid-Tipped Diamonds. Step back the highest die in an attack action pool to add a d6 and step up physical stress inflicted. SFX: Diamond Burst. Against a single target, step up or double Weapon die. Remove the highest rolling die and use three dice for the total. SFX: Electric Diamonds. Change Weapon D8 into Energy Weapon 2D6 for your next action. If the target is stressed out from this attack, they take no trauma. SFX: Explosive Diamonds. Against multiple targets, for each additional target add a D6 and either keep an additional effect die or add a D6 doom die for every two additional targets. SFX: Smoke Diamonds. When creating smoke-based assets or complications, add a D6 and step up your effect die. Shutdown this SFX to leave your current scene in an outdoor or exposed location. Spend a doom die to recover this SFX and join the next scene after it begins. Limit: Gear. Shutdown a Girl’s Best Friend power to step up the lowest die in the doom pool or add a D6 doom die. Spend a doom die to recover that power. Specialties Acrobatics Master D10, Combat Expert D8, Covert Expert D8, Crime Expert D8, Vehicles Expert D8 Category: Datafile Category: Watcher Datafile Category: Allies of Captain America Category: Avengers Initiative Category: B.A.D. Girls Inc. Category: Mercenary Category: S.H.I.E.L.D. Category: Serpent Society Category: Serpent Solutions Category: Stars and Stripes